http://www.flickr.com/photos/37563149@N00/sets/72157625361952567/   more »

Well, we hosted the Bastrop County Historical Society Gala last Friday night and finally were able to show the community ...   more »

Below is the foreword that I wrote for Webster Gregg's Book

Since he has recently passed away, I am now ...   more »

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/statesman/obituary.aspx?n=webster-gregg&pid=145870472
Rev. Webster Gregg, Jr. Rev. Webster Gregg, Jr., age 65, went to be with his Lord on Thursday, October ...   more »

http://www.txgenweb8.org/txbastrop/1910s.htm


Looking back into the past we sometimes thrill to the sublime sactrifices and purposes

of lives that perhaps at ...   more »

Reproduced from the holdings of the Texas State Archives
Home of T.B.J. Hill
In 1831 the Commissioner of Austin’s colony, ...   more »

In 1833 John Gilmer McGehee , with his brother, Thomas G. McGehee (the father of the compiler of these sketches), ...   more »

See this link that shows that Abraham (Abram) Wiley Hill served in 2nd Regiment Volunteers Cavalry/Spy Company

http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/sjvetsunit.htm

Officers
Henry ...   more »

See attached article about the third annual meeting of the Woman's Press association where a letter was read by Lizzie ...   more »

This story is from "Silent Night Deadly Night" by Lisa Lach. I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa today. The ...   more »

Hills Prairie or Hubbard-Hill Cemetery is a very historic cemetery, 135 years old (now more than 150 years old), located ...   more »

See the link to McArdle's Painting from 1895:

http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/mcardle/paintings/sanjac-big.html

This was the painting that features Wiley Hill with his hat ...   more »

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37563149@N00/sets/72157622625587446/   more »

Excerpt from the forthcoming book: Bastrop County Texas: During Reconstruction by Kenneth Kesselus...thanks for sharing Ken!   more »

The stained-glass windows in the United Methodist church of Bastrop, Texas are examples of some of the finest Venetian stained ...   more »

Josiah Whipple did not actively participate in the dedication because he was still mourning the death of his wife Sarah ...   more »

25 preachers attended

"As the Conference adjourned in the middle of the day, a number of the preachers were enable ...   more »

The Texas conference appointed Josiah Whipple to the Austin/Bastrop circuit four 1842. Whipple's diary refresh reflects these events:

January 15, ...   more »

In 1840 John Hayne was appointed to the Austin/Bastrop circuit, this becoming the first minister regularly assigned to Bastrop. He ...   more »

The First Methodist Church is celebrating their 175 Anniversary this year. Last night, a fellow church member gave me a ...   more »

The family of DR. KENNETH ROBERT DUFF is saddened of the death on the 28th of January 2010 of their ...   more »

National Trust for Historic Preservation Names Bastrop, Texas, to its 2010 List of America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations
First Year that ...   more »

Some of this is from my blog and looks like other parts are from additional research.   more »

http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/indian/early/page3.html
Indian Depredations

The word "depredate" means plunder or ravage. In the nineteenth century, the term "depredations" was universally used ...   more »

I just got a new book that is a reproduction of a book written by J. W. Wilbarger in 1888. ...   more »

Check on this link for our construction progress album on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37563149@N00/sets/72157622625587446/   more »

A recent article in the Bastrop Advertiser (November 28, 2009) tells about a group of amateur archeologists who are digging near our property. The group is part of the Texas Archeological Stewardship Network, a program of the Texas Historical Commission. The group has uncovered pieces of stone tools used on bison, pottery shards, cooking areas and some arrowheads dating from around 2500 BC within the Archaic Period. In a nearby spot the team also uncovered artifacts from the late pre-historic period form 1000 AD to 1500 AD, the period of early European contact with America. How interesting to know that our land was inhabited long before the Hills came to Texas.

See pictures of tornado damage from 08/13/09 here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37563149@N00/sets/72157622045287823/   more »

In 1861 the Hill boys of Hill's Plantation (near Bastrop ) rode off to war. They had signed on with Col. B. F. Terry's 8th Texas Cavalry, better knows as Terry's Texas Rangers, one of the most celebrated Confederate regiments.

They left behind their widowed mother who, too sick to run their large plantation, handed those duties to her seventeen year old daughter Mary Scott Hill (called "Scott" by her brothers.)   more »

Webster Gregg and I are speaking to hundreds of descendants of Hill Slaves this Saturday at St. John's Colony where the freed slaves settled after they left Hills Prairie. It should be an unforgettable experience.

http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Slave-Slavery-White-House/dp/1599796295/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244548349&sr=1-1

The new book written by a descendant of the Hill Slaves has been published and is now available on ...   more »

Received this from Al Hill who had some new information and information confirming what we have. Hope to meet you some day...Al.   more »

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37563149@N00/sets/72157604802542011/

I have posted a flickr link to the photos of our restoration and progress. To review our progress, we ...   more »

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37563149@N00/sets/72157614556863108/show/

Click on link to see the amazing before and after photos of the recent cemetery restoration by Glenn Oldham ...   more »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mansfield

http://www.civilwar.org/historyclassroom/hc_mansfieldhist.htm

http://americancivilwar.com/statepic/la/la018.html

Mansfield
Sabine Cross-Roads, Pleasant Grove
Civil War Louisiana

American Civil War
April 8, 1864

By this time, ...   more »

Webb Gregg says that she claimed to be a descendant of the Hill Slaves. He has not been able to ...   more »

http://www.cemetery.state.tx.us/pub/user_form.asp?step=1&pers_id=1865
WILLIAMS, MARY SCOTT HILL (1844-1930) Mary Scott Hill Williams was born July 25, 1844, twelve miles outside of Bastrop, ...   more »

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6131269

Lot 45017 email
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[William Barret Travis] Broadside Titled at Top:

Streeter lists two copies of this broadside located at the Texas State Library in Austin, and at the San Jacinto Museum of History. This would be the third known copy, recently de-accessed from the collection of the Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (TXUDC), our consignor. The TXUDC received this broadside along with a small archive of documents pertaining to Abram W. Hill, an early immigrant to Texas who served at San Jacinto. They were a gift from TXUDC member Eva Hill Karling, granddaughter of Abram W. Hill. Ms. Karling was the daughter of Augustus M. Hill (son of Abram), who served as a private in Co. B of the 26th Texas Cavalry, Debray's Regiment. As a colonist who arrived in Texas in 1835, it is likely Abram Hill received the Travis broadside upon its original circulation in 1836.   more »

This article from Friday, Oct 17 Wall Street Journal is very interesting about the Black and White McCains.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122419511761942501.html


   more »

Holmes history and Civil War   more »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI9YMPfZKFM

See the YouTube trailer here.  Looks like the movie has been released in some markets...filmed here at Hills Prairie ...   more »

Tonight, Rev. Webster Gregg and I told our stories at the Bastrop Historical Society. Below are my notes, and Webster did an amazing job summarizing his family history from royalty in Africa, through slavery, to today.   more »